If Illinois makes the Final Four, it will be more difficult than usual to toast the Fighting Illini in Champaign.
Alcohol sales will be limited Saturday night on the University of Illinois campus to curb potential property damage and excessive celebration if the Fighting Illini beat rival Iowa in the Elite Eight, Champaign, Ill., city officials announced.
“While we cheer the Illini basketball team on to victory this weekend, I want to remind fans to follow the team’s lead and to celebrate responsibly,” Champaign mayor Deborah Frank Feinen said in a statement. “These steps are being taken to reduce the possibility of public safety hazards before and after the game. I expect all our students, residents, and visitors to celebrate all the accomplishments of this amazing team respectfully, responsibly, and safely.”
The limitations include a requirement for campus bars to sell alcohol in paper and plastic cups, a ban on all sales of “packaged liquor” beginning one hour after tipoff and a rule that no liquor establishment citywide can sell more than a single keg to an individual customer.
Delivery drivers will not be permitted to bring alcohol to or from campus beginning one hour after tipoff.
After seeing the response to Illinois beating Houston in the Sweet 16, local police reportedly expressed concern that the next celebration “may be a threat to the public health, safety and welfare” of residents.
When current legal-aged college students were infants, Illinois had similar restrictions in place.
“We made a run to the championship game in 2005. At that time, they had done some of this also,” Jeff Hamilton, deputy liquor commissioner in Champgain, told ESPN. “We’re doing something similar to what we did the last time we had a deep run in the tournament.
He added, “We’re just doing this for public safety reasons. The bars are still open. They just have to do it in paper and plastic cups. That’s the biggest thing. No, it’s not an alcohol ban.”